Prison Inmate Labor Initiative

The Department of Corrections has been charged with the disposition of the state's convicted criminals. Thusly named, it would indicate that its function is to correct the behavior that precipitated an inmate's transgression of the law. As evidenced by rising crime rates, this is not occurring. Your editorial condemning Proposition 139 endorses the status quo.

The people of this state are being offered a choice. On one hand, we can allow criminals to spend their time honing their reprehensible skills and acquiring new, more sinister ones. Or, on the other, we can require them to support themselves to the relief of taxpayers, repay their debt to society and their victims, possibly learn a trade and break the cycle that has a good chance of seeing them back in prison. I know which option I will choose.